A "journey" involving running in place in the deep end. Quite possibly I've gone off the deep end.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The obligatory pool-running tracklist post

[well, not really]

From time to time, people post lists of "great running songs", "good tempo songs", etc. I've always been reluctant to do so, as I think music is very individual.

Assemblage 23's "I am the Rain" spoke to me deeply in the early days of my injury/pool-running saga, as I processed my frustrations with myself and my failed training. But I'm guessing this track doesn't mean much to my pool-running buddies, or to anyone glancing at this blog. And likewise, when others post tracklists to their blogs, most times it's meaningless to me -- just words on a page, not the compilation of feelings and emotions that they are to the original poster.

Music is very personal and individual. What motivates me is noise to you.

That being said, there are a few tracks that come up on my iPod's shuffle function from time to time while pool-running that seem worthy of note.

The track that makes you certain your iPod is mocking you: Pretty much any track that references water, rain, oceans, drowning, etc... -- you never realize how many of them there are until you're pool running with your iPod on shuffle. Rotersand's "By The Waters" does send me for a loop("meet you by the waters/To dance beneath the waves...")

This is too funny. I'm such a dork, I've got Glee and Bee Gees and too many other unmentionables on my pool running list, since it takes so long and I never ever update the music on my waterproof mp3 player.

Full slew of race reports here (from my first in June 2007 to 2010) and here (2011).

workouts

(you can click on the link to see the details)

Pool running conversion

I convert my pool-running into “mileage” with this formula:

1)10 minutes “easy” in the pool equals one mile

2)workouts translate by time into mileage, with the recoveries not counting for mileage.For example, I would normally cover half a mile in 3:00 during an interval workout, and 1.5 miles in 10:00 during a tempo.So 8x3:00 at interval effort is 4 miles, and 10 minutes at tempo effort is 1.5 miles.